2 days later, it was the day of the Auction. Alex kept the tiny Pearl, who was smaller than normal in his robes, with just his head poking out, and walked towards the auction house.
The Three Faction auction house was apparently the biggest auction house in the Riverweed town and the surrounding other 3 towns that were 3 hours carriage journey from here.
On the day of the auction, major sects and families from all over the 4 towns came to gather in the Three Factions Alliance auction house.
Many people expected a lot of great things to be found in the auction house today, but Alex didn't. He just hoped to find one of the 10 remaining ingredients of the True rank healing pill that he was to make.
Not that he would mind coming across a special weapon or artifacts.
The auction house had already opened by the time he arrived, so he quickly entered it.
He likely could've gotten a better seating if he used his True Earth alchemist badge to show off a little, but he didn't need it.
He was here truly just to see how his pills would sell. After all, he really needed the money to make more pills.
Since he was going to be away from the Northern forest, he needed money to buy ingredients to practice alchemy.
For the first time, he was going to have to suffer in his alchemy progress in terms of ingredients.
Hopefully, not by much.
The auction hall was rather large, with a sound-dampening formation carved onto all the metal walls on the sides.
The stage was bright with light from all directions being produced by some sort of light-producing artifact, different from the lanterns he was used to.
Alex could see about 30 rows of seats along nearly 50 columns. Aside from that, there were more than 100 seats for the rich and famous up above.
Aside from the elders from the many nearby sects, and merchants, Alex wondered who else would be eligible to sit there.
Alex found himself a seat at the lower back corner of the hall and waited for it all to start.
As he expected, an attractive girl in a beautiful red robe walked to the front and introduced herself as the auctioneer for the day.
Alex sighed. It was always a beautiful girl who ran the auction. That, or an old man who would give the guests a sense of trust in the items that were being auctioned.
This was certainly working, as a group of men got unusually excited when they saw the girl walk out onto the stage.
A few minutes more and the girl started introducing items one by one.
A formation plate that could capture any beast under the Meridian Tempering realm.
A talisman that exploded with the power of True Master 2nd realm expert.
A pill that could make a woman's body more bountiful and even help increase fertility for up to 3 days.
A puppet that had strength equivalent to that of a Mind Tempering 1st realm, but the defense of a True Disciple 1st realm.
An armor that used water energy to freeze the attacker's weapons and fists.
A flute that could make anyone under the 1st True Disciple realm fall asleep.
A set of 2 talismans that could be used to communicate over 2000 kilometers away.
An Azure Silverbeak that was no more than 2 years old, and could be made into a bonded beast.
One after another, the girl at the stage announced the item she was auctioning, and in just a couple of bids, the amount would reach dozens of True Spirit stones.
The latest item, a pair of daggers, suitable for someone whose cultivation method was Metal aligned, sold for over 50 True Spirit stones.
Being a True Earth grade artifact, Alex was surprised it didn't sell for more. It must've been the fact that not many people used daggers at all to make the bids go high.
Finally, the pills he gave to the Alchemist Guild to pass along to the auction house were being sold.
From 20, all the way to 60 True Spirit stones. The 50 True-Earth grade pills he gave amassed him about 2500 coins in just an hour.
He wished he could give the other 80 or so pills he was ready to sell too, but that would be gaining too much attention.
He currently had no backing aside from the Alchemist guild, and if someone from the alchemist guild came to hurt him, he couldn't save himself.
Most of the pills he sold were ones that he had no use for. They included pills that helped in cultivation, changed faces, or increased one's resistance or immunity to poison.
There were also other miscellaneous pills, but not a single one of those included pills that would be used in healing.
He had already come to understand how significantly important it was to stock up on pills that healed, rather than pills that did any other thing.
Once his pills were sold, the other alchemist's pills were also sold.
A few of those Alchemists did sell healing pills, unlike Alex, but it was understandable. Not everyone had the same experience as him and prioritized the same thing.
He was starting to get bored and looked around a bit when he heard two men behind him bid for the healing pills.
"53 True spirit stones."
Alex sent his spiritual sense behind him to gently touch the man's aura and recognized that he was a True Disciple realm cultivator of slightly higher cultivation than him.
Going past that, he checked the person and saw that he was injured on his left shoulder, and likely needed the healing pill.
At 66 True Spirit stones, the man finally had to step down to some other person in the lower area and took the loss.
"It's okay, senior brother. We can have the alchemists make one for you," a woman spoke softly from next to him.
"Yes, I know, but it would cost a lot," the man said with as little emotion as he could muster, but Alex could hear the pain in his voice. 66 True spirit stones seemed to be a figure he wasn't able to bring out quite as easily.
Having to have an alchemist make one would likely cost him about the same price, if not higher.
"Once you get healed, you can go back to the northern forest at the end of the week and earn a lot more," the girl said.
The man gave a heavy sigh and nodded. "Yes, I can't let this depress me," he said. "If only we were in the capital, I'm sure the princess of the Shen clan could've healed me with a simple gesture."
'Shen clan?' Alex thought. 'Isn't that one of the 7 colors clan? Shen should be the Blue one, right?'
"If you really want that much luck, why don't you go meet the Royal princess and have her use the healing orb on you? That could heal you in no time," the girl said.
"Sure it could. But I w—"
Suddenly, Alex turned around, making the two of them stop speaking.
"I'm so sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear your talk about this Healing orb. Would you mind explaining a bit more about it?" he asked.
He really didn't want to interfere and let them know he was listening, but the talk about the Shen girl being able to heal and the Wei family princess with the healing orb was too tempting of a talk.
"Who are you?" the man's eyes darkened. No one really liked being eavesdropped upon. The man was especially angry that it was done by someone with less age and cultivation than him.
"Forgiveness, brother," Alex said. "I'm just a man in need of healing." He finally showed his stump to the man.
The man's eyes got less dangerous, but he still held a bit of anger in them.
Alex suddenly pulled out a pill bottle and offered it to the man. "I am really sorry for listening in on your conversation, but I really need to know. Please take this 22% Flesh Reverting pill as a token of sincerity."
The blue-dotted, white ceramic bottle suddenly looked very tempting to the man. It wasn't a 32% Swift Healing pill that was just sold, but it would be enough for him.
"Is this really a healing pill?" the man asked suspiciously.
